City Center to undergo transformation: Will it work?

April 26, 2012|By Joe Lawlor, jlawlor@dailypress.com | 757-247-7874

Big changes are on the way to City Center.

A story I wrote for Sunday's front page detailed the upcoming new additions to City Center, specifically how City Center is trying to position itself as a nighttime entertainment district. The movie theaters, Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill, a microbrewery/restaurant, a Brazilian restaurant and a possible stage over the fountain point toward the shift.

But will it be enough to rejuvenate the retail at City Center, the city's grand experiment with New Urbanism?

One of the experts quoted in the story — John Norquist with the Congress for the New Urbanism — compared the retail at City Center to Kentlands in Gaithersburg, Md.

Norquist's point is that for New Urbanism centers that don't have an anchor and aren't on a major thoroughfare, such as City Center, it may take a while for retail to become successful. In Kentlands' case, it took five years. Looking at the web site for Kentlands, it's not a direct comparison, because Kentlands is trying to recreate the traditional "Americana" neighborhood, while City Center is more of a modern gleaming "new downtown."

Still, the point is that traditional retail is already a difficult business, especially in the Internet age, and trying to survive without an anchor or being directly on Jefferson Avenue or Warwick Boulevard would be challenging. City Center doesn't have nearly the traffic flow of a main road, and you have to be specifically deciding, "I want to go to City Center" to go there.

So why not make it the spot for entertainment in Newport News?

Retailers I spoke to seemed thrilled at the prospect of more people coming to City Center, especially after 5 p.m.

In about two to three years, we'll know whether the latest grand vision for City Center is working.

The $3 million would buy equipment upgrades for the Newport News physics research facility, making the Free Electron Laser "brighter and more reliable," lab officials have said.

Watson said the $3 million is a starting point, as a way to marshal more funding for the lab so the lab can be better positioned to compete for future U.S. Department of Energy grants. Newport News city officials have already indicated they're willing to listen to proposals to help with funding.

Apprentice School news

The groundbreaking for the new Apprentice School in downtown will be 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 3, with a tentative appearance by Gov. Bob McDonnell to celebrate the start of the $72 million project, which also includes retail and apartments. The new school is slated to open in 2013.